1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a digitized picture playback apparatus or device for retrieving pictures from a first digital data base medium in which digitized pictures have been stored, the device comprising a read unit for reading the digitized pictures from the first digital data base medium in accordance with first control information, and a picture processing unit for convening the read digitized pictures into a picture signal suitable for reproduction means for reproducing a visible representation of the digitized picture, the picture processing unit convening the read-out digitized picture in accordance with second control information in order to effect an adaptation of the reproduction of the digitized picture.
The invention also relates to a method for use with a digital picture processing system wherein a plurality of pictures are digitized and written to a first digital data base, the contents of said first digital data base being capable of being read by a picture playback device which contains a digital data base access controller for controllably accessing a digitized picture stored by said first digital data base and, in response to the contents of a digitized picture accessed from said first digital data base, controllably outputting picture display control signals for controlling the operation of a picture reproduction device, so that the picture accessed from said first digital data base is displayed thereby. The manner in which said picture playback device causes said picture reproduction device to display a picture is controlled by a method which comprises the step of
storing first control information through which said controller (a) controls the accessing of a digitized picture from said first digital data base and (b) outputs reproduction device control signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a device and method are known, inter alia from the book "Compact Disc Interactive, a designer's overview", published by Kluwer (ISBN 9020121219). This book describes the so-called CD-I system. This system enables digitized pictures to be recorded on a Compact Disc. The digitized pictures can be read from the Compact Disc by means of a CD-I player and subsequently a representation of the digitized picture thus read can be displayed on a display screen.
Photographic still pictures, such as those captured by way of a 35 mm camera, may be digitized and recorded on the CD-I disc, for subsequent playback on the CD-I player. The output of the CD-I player drives a reproduction device, such as a consumer television set or color thermal printer.
One of the key aspects is the manner in which the digitized pictures are stored to obtain a file format that facilitates both the storage and retrieval of pictures for reproduction by a variety of devices, the resolution of which may vary from device to device.
In particular, when a photographic picture capture medium, such as a 24 or 36 frame, 35 mm film strip, is scanned by a high resolution scanner to digitize the respective pictures that have been captured on the film, each digitized picture may be subjected to a compression operator that "down-converts" a very high resolution picture file, (e.g., 2048 lines by 3072 pixels/line file) into an iterative set of residue picture files and a base, or low, resolution file, (e.g. a 512 lines by 768 pixels per line array representative of the picture). In an example of a preferred compression, each (512.times.768) base resolution file may be formatted as a set of four interlaced (256 lines by 384 pixels per line) picture sub-arrays, respectively defined by four sub-arrays of pixels within the 512.times.768 base resolution array, corresponding to odd pixel/odd line, odd pixel/even line, even pixel/odd line, even pixel/even line sub-arrays.
The size of both the base resolution file and its interlaces sub-fields are chosen to facilitate the implementation and incorporation of a low cost, reduced complexity frame store/data retrieval architecture into a conventional CD player, which provides for rapid call-up and display of selected pictures on a consumer television color monitor. Each captured picture may be digitized by the scanner and preferably stored "as is", regardless of its orientation on the film. A header file may be annexed to each picture. This header file may contain orientation, aspect ratio and other minilab operator-generator information that is readable by the data retrieval microcontroller of a CD player, to control the interfacing of the base resolution data file from the compact disc to a reproduction device (e.g., TV display).
Now although an optical compact disc is a very high quality density storage medium, it is a write-once or permanent medium; it cannot be erased or altered. Moreover, in order to provide a substantial degree of reproductive flexibility to the user, the contents of the picture file and its associated header, as prepared by the photofinishing minilab operator, are defined to optimize predefined picture characteristics (scene balance) and to indicate how the picture has been captured and digitized, rather than tailor the stored picture file for playback on a particular reproduction device. Further adjustment of parameters of the reproduced picture is left to the user. Thus, where the reproduction device is a consumer television monitor, the customer/user may selectively customize the manner in which a picture file is displayed by the operation of a player/display control unit (e.g., hand-held IR transmitter) which drives video display software resident in the player. Indeed, from a practical standpoint, it can be expected that in any given roll of film, there will be one or more pictures that a user may find less than interesting or may wish to modify (e.g., enlarge, crop) to a preferred presentation.
Because a color picture effectively consists of an extremely large set of parallel information sources, the degree of freedom associated with the modification of a digitized color picture provides the user with practically an infinite number of possible alternative appearances for the base picture file, so that customization of even a single picture may involve both creativity and the expenditure of a non-substantial period of time.